Artist seeks out the sentimental with Internet art museum, dollhouse

Friday

Aug 31, 2007 at 12:01 AMAug 31, 2007 at 2:16 PM

When artist Sharon Shea was a child she enjoyed capturing caterpillars and watching them hatch and transform into moths within her dresser drawers. Insects provided a glimpse into a miniature world that captured her imagination.

Kristin D’Agostino/kdagosti@cnc.com

When artist Sharon Shea was a child she enjoyed capturing caterpillars and watching them hatch and transform into moths within her dresser drawers. Insects provided a glimpse into a miniature world that captured her imagination.

Now in her own work, the 62-year-old assemblage artist attempts to create worlds of her own, arranging and photographing insects, fossils and other ethereal objects to evoke a sense of magic and mystery.

For the last month Shea has focused all her energy on creating a world within an antique wooden dollhouse set up on her dining room table. Though at first glance it appears an ordinary children’s toy, furnished with tiny tables and plastic dolls, a tour from the artist reveals layers of meaning attached to each of the four rooms. Tucked in hidden corners and pinned onto walls are details from Shea’s own life, left up to the viewer’s interpretation.

When furnishing the dollhouse rooms, Shea drew from her love of fairytales, dedicating rooms to Hansel and Gretel, and Alice in Wonderland.

“I love Alice because she is in a completely controlled imaginary world and she comes out OK,” Shea says. On the bed inside one room lies a tiny cloth Alice doll presided over by two portraits of cats which call to mind Billie, a real-life cat Shea rescued from an animal shelter.

In the other bedroom a grandmother doll sits in a rocking chair reading to three children, a scene that represents Shea’s relationship with her own five grandchildren, which is one steeped in imaginative storytelling.

Downstairs in the living room inside a gilded cage sits a photo of a green parrot, a real-life miniature version of her own bird Pipinella who was named after Dr. Dolittle’s talking canary.

The exterior of the house is inspired by Salem’s history. It appears haunted, decorated with black cats and spiders that provide a stark contrast to the house’s innocent fairytale interior. A carousel horse meant to represent the Willows sits beside a fence modeled after the one at the Common.

In wandering through Shea’s own house, a visitor can easily follow the artist’s many inspirations like a trail of breadcrumbs left for the curious minded. On the mantelpiece in her living room a framed photograph of silvery haired artist Tasha Tudor sits beside a long row of dolls collected from all over the world.

“That picture represents being a grandmother,” Shea says. “Grandmothers to me are symbolic of comfort and wisdom.”

In her bedroom atop a bureau sits a kind of Buddhist shrine with statues from a Tibetan temple and a tiny basket full of ceramic cats, one to represent each of the cats Shea has had in the course of her lifetime. This area of the house, Shea says, helps her feel connected to her lost loved ones.

A collection of fossils piled high on a bookshelf serve as passports to another time.

“I love things that come from far away …” Shea says. “Going back to dinosaur times is fascinating to me. Or watching a Jacques Cousteau program where you’re going into another world.”

The tour of Shea’s house ends with a peek inside a room where, perched on a tall piece of driftwood, sits the real-life Pipinella chatting merrily to himself.

The making of an artist

Shea’s love for all things tiny and unique is showcased on one of her Web sites, www.mosa.virtual.museum, which she calls the Museum of Sentimental Art. Her own assemblages and the art and collections of others are posted there.

Given Shea’s sense of childlike wonder its no surprise she’s dedicated much of her life to working with children. While her three children were growing up in the '70s and ’80s, Shea worked as a volunteer for an exotic animal show, traveling to schools and shopping malls where she helped children overcome their fears by bonding with 20-foot pythons. After obtaining a master’s in psychology from Cambridge College, she continued to help troubled children gain confidence, often using animals as a tool to get them to open up.

“Animals are therapeutic because they need to be cared for,” Shea says. “I like to give empowerment to disempowered people, children who have something to say … I like to create something that allows them expression.”

Now, Shea hopes to use her dollhouse as a similar tool. In an interactive exhibit at the Sass:C gallery, Shea will allow children to peer inside the rooms and touch the whimsical props outside the house, in attempt to get them to create their own stories.

“Usually we work with kids with the idea that we’re going to tell them all about something,” Shea reflects. “I like to reverse that. They’re going to come up with things I never thought of.”

The Sass:C gallery will host the unveiling of the new Salem-themed haunted dollhouse Friday, Sept. 7 from noon to 8 p.m. at Sass:C on Artist’s Row, located between Front and Derby streets. There will be a light reception in the afternoon and evening, the lighting of the Haunted Salem (Doll) House and display of MOSA (Museum of Sentimental Arts) cats. Shea will greet visitors and discuss the work and concepts. The dollhouse will be on view Sept 7-14. For more information on MOSA and Sharon Shea, visit www.mosa.virtual.museum and www.prints.salemdesign.com.